Aaron Younce

My name is Aaron. I'm a luthier by trade, and a musician and guitar tech by night. I've been studying lutherie since my early teenage years, and I've been a musician for about as long.
Prior to forming a partnership with Benjamin here in New Orleans, I was a production manager and principal luthier at Fodera Guitars in Brooklyn, NY. My past work experience also includes San Francisco Guitarworks and Carvin Guitars in Sand Diego, CA. I have a degree in Recording Arts, and I've spent countless hours in recording studios and out on the road with various bands throughout the years.
Along with these facets of my livelihood, my passion lies in the continuous pursuit of knowledge and experience.

Author's posts

One of the most common structural repairs we deal with in the shop is the case of the broken headstock. While guitars are generally pretty well designed to withstand the abuse we musicians tend to put them through, the headstock is their Achilles’ Heel. A couple of factors play into this: first, most Gibson guitars …

Unlike most industries, the biggest selling electric guitars on the market have remained virtually unchanged since the 1950s, for the most part. We, the guitar players and collectors of the world are pretty well steeped in tradition and perhaps even a bit of nostalgia when it comes to this stuff. We covet our atom age …

Regarding anything we humans do in life, there are usually two potential approaches: the quick way and the right way, with all of our actions and efforts falling somewhere in line on that spectrum. This specimen fell victim to someone routing pickup cavities the quick way – with a hand held Dremel tool – so we …

It’s been 12 years since New Orleans was forever scarred by the high-water mark of Hurricane Katrina. As the flood waters receded, abandoned artifacts representing about $81 billion in damage emerged. An estimated 800,000 housing units, over 200,000 cars and trucks, and an immeasurable number of personal belongings were among the wreckage. Most of what …

Over the years Gibson has come up with some of the most legendary instrument designs the world has ever seen, some of which are essential to defining rock and roll itself. Innovations like the Les Paul, the Firebird, and the Explorer are among the coolest guitars ever made, while the P-90 pickup, the PAF humbucker …

“Once more with synergy!” facetiously cries a cynical and formidable adversary of unbridled capitalism, Naomi Klein, in her corporate-weary manifesto scrutinizing the branded world in which we live, No Logo. This post is basically about that. One of our dear clients, Michael, recently picked up a Gibson SG on the cheap – perhaps because the seller, …

We recently took in a nameless gypsy jazz guitar in desperate need of restoration. We inspected the instrument inside and out for any identifying logos or serial numbers and came up with nothing. The label inside the guitar bears the words “Jazz Cutaway Hot”, and the rest of the ink has fell victim to the …

Hey everyone! Aaron here. I’ll be using this month’s blog post to talk about a custom guitar project that we’re all pretty excited about. To give you a little background, I embarked upon my path of lutherie at a pretty young age under the instruction of my father, who has been a guitar maker since …

Hey everyone, Aaron here. I’ve been repairing your instruments alongside Benjamin for the last 4 months, and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many of you in the shop by now. I’ve even seen some of you out on gigs around town! It’s been great getting to know you, the working musicians of New Orleans, …

[Today’s blog post is guest written by my good friend, Aaron Younce, who is a brilliant luthier who builds custom bass guitars in Brooklyn, NY. Since he’s such a talented woodworker, and my home shop is not currently set up to make tons of wood dust, I sent him this Telecaster body to carve in …